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$9 Billion Loophole for Synthetic Fuel
Rondrin writes "CNN has an article detailing a $9 billion loophole in the tax code to spur synthetic fuel development. Unfortunately, spraying coal with pine tar qualifies. From the article: 'The wording is so bland and buried so deep within a 324-page budget document that almost no one would notice that a multibillion-dollar scam is going on. Not the members of Congress voting for it and certainly not the taxpayers who will get fleeced by it. And that is exactly the idea.'"
My uncle was in congress when Clinton was president. He found out about the missile strikes on Afghanistan when he saw it on CNN.
It's amazing how uninformed members of congress can be.
I was watching this thing on TV about some guy named Hitler. Someone should stop him!
324 pages? Maybe if I made $165,200 per year and got free airfare back and forth from home to work....oh...wait...
My diesel automobile could easily run biodiesel refined from old fry grease from the McDonald's down the street if only Uncle Sam would shove Big Oil out of the way and let it be refined. Nevermind that the process could easily be done for under $1.00 a gallon. Nevermind that it doesn't depend at all on the Middle East. Nevermind that it burns cleaner than either regular diesel or gasoline. Bah.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
Ummm ... US companies have been purchasing Chinese goods for 50 years ... mostly because they can get them much cheaper, than paying dumbass union workers $45/hr to produce the same thing.
... not by a long shot.
Not the fault of the "current administration"
Please buy a (chinese) clue during your next shopping run at Wal-Mart.
Frammin' on the jim-jam, frippin' at the krotz!
FTA: From 2003 through 2005, TIME estimates, the synfuel industry raked in $9 billion in tax credits. That means the lucky few collectively cut their tax bills by that amount, which would be enough to cover a year's worth of federal taxes for 20 million Americans who make less than $20,000 a year and pay income taxes.
So while this tax loophole sucks, it's $3 billion a year not $9 billion. That means it's a year's worth of taxes for 6.6 million people who make 20K, not 20 million.
Although people think of programs like welfare when they hear the term socialism, govt. incentives to help business are the same thing. You can argue that giving incentives to companies to produce technology in areas the US needs to be headed in is a good thing, but don't be surprised when the money is ill spent. Unlike in a corporation, where people are fired for wasting money, in govt. you win elections for getting tax dollars into your district, even if they are being spent on something completely non-productive.
Vote for Pedro
Unless your uncle was the chair or ranking member of the Intellience Committee, there's no requirement for him to have been informed of the strikes, iirc, for obvious security reasons.
So, why doesn't Congress use a revision control system? When the day comes to vote on a bill, you check for changes since the last time you read it. If there are changes, you know who made them and when. Your basic audit trail.
I suspect that one of the reasons something like this hasn't been implemented yet is that most politicians are habitual defectors rather than cooperators; they may not want their enemies to be able to use dirty tricks, but they'd like to be able to do it themselves.
Ah, besides. Can you imagine Congressional debate on whether to use CVS, svn, or... what am I thinking? Free software wouldn't even be on the table.
Republicans and Democrats alike pledging to crack down on influence peddling,
Riiiight. Pardon my underwhelming response, but I seem to remember a similar effort to "crack down" on campaign finance abuse. Oh wait...that has yet to happen. And this is something else that will also probably never happen. Any elected person worth their weight in salt (literally) knows that exercising care not to bite the hand that fills the campaign trough is far more pressing than more mundane issues - like maintaining a sense of integrity. I'm filing this in the "I'll believe it when I see it" category.
This is not news. This was in Time a few years ago. Apparently there are several Pennsylvania and West Virginia coal mining companies that paid little to no taxes for 5 years by rigging up some tar spraying system over their coal cars.
This is another example of why you cannot rely on the government to "solve" these fuel problems. They end up making bad situations worse. Take the oil crisis of the mid 70's. The government tries to solve the problem by implementing price controls instead of letting market forces take hold and lowering demand. They end up running half the stations out of business for a time and creating huge lines at the ones that do manage to stay open. I'm not a Bush fan, but he should be praised for leaving things alone after Katrina. Gas prices worked themselves out because people became concious of their consumption. Demand fell, prices fell. The Market worked.
I say we convince a congressman somewhere to sneak a small snippet into some must-pass law oen of these days. A snippet that would allow me once a year to show politicians what I think of their work by requiring each politician to allow me to smack them upside the head. And make a big shindig of it all, invite the press, hire a caterer, and of course all a tthe taxpayers' expense. This snippet of law would not allow anyone to back out of getting smacked. What a great way to spend one day a year, and it could be a heck of a party. National Politician Smacking Day, everybody gets off work to watch it on TV and everything.
Do you think they'd start actually reading what they vote for if something like this happened a few times?
Interesting how they tie the giveaway to current Republicans and Democrats and yet who is mentioned supporting the giveaway in the article?
* Charles Grassley, Republican (IA)
* Rick Santorum, Republican (PA)
* Gordon Smith, Republican (OR)
* Orrin Hatch, Republican (UT)
Who is mentioned as being against the giveaway?
* Lloyd Doggett, Democrat (TX)
So maybe it's the so-called "liberal media" who is just raking the GOP over the coals. Or, maybe it's representative of trying to show the corrupt GOP Congress as being bipartisan in a weak attempt to appear "fair and balanced."
In this case, I suspect it's the latter. YRMV.
Support a few technologists in Washington.